It occurred to us that there might very likely be some torchlight dancing in the village, so after supper we strolled thither, but scarcely saw a creature out of doors. But from within almost every house we passed came the voice of most fervent family prayer, telling how the household and their guests were closing that day of much excitement. A man has just come up from Nakorovatu with the horrible news that a boy was killed there this morning by a shark, at the very spot where we embarked yesterday. The brute caught him by the leg, tore off the calf, and broke the bone. The shore was lined with spectators, but they could not help, and by the time that some men contrived to drag away the poor fellow he was so terribly injured that he died almost immediately. Several of our men bathed there yesterday, and we also occasionally bathe in the river when we can find no pleasanter or more secluded stream. But this really is most alarming, for we certainly thought ourselves safe from sharks at this distance from the sea—fully thirty miles. Lower down the river they are a fully recognised danger, and a man was recently carried off while bathing at Nundiokar, one of the villages where we halted, a few days ago. There is a perfect crowd of interesting young couples just coming in to be married, so I must watch the proceedings. The brides appear shy, and the bridegrooms bashful. I am sorry to observe that some of the brides are both ugly and old! They do not wear such quantities of pretty white and brown cloth as the brides on the coast; in fact, they wear exceedingly little of anything. Perhaps they were too poor to buy a _trousseau_. Anyhow, this is rather a dingy lot of weddings. Now good night—Your loving sister. CHAPTER XI. CHRISTMAS IN GREAT FIJI—PIG FEASTS—WEDDINGS—FIJIAN NAMES—CANNIBAL DAINTIES—CHRISTMAS CHIMES—SNEEZING—“OUR FATHER” IN FIJIAN. (From a native Fijian house at Nirukuruku, a moated town on the banks of the Wai Nimala, one of the many heads of the great river Rewa, the richest land in Viti Levu—_i.e._, Great Fiji.) “And strangely fell our Christmas Eve.” _Christmas Day, 1875._ DEAR NELL,—Do you remember the Christmas Eve at the Bridge of Allan, when we first quoted that line to one another? when we had seen the last of the dear old home, and the newly fallen snow lay on our father’s grave, and we two looked down past that unfamiliar spire to the cold white world beyond, and wondered what might lie before us in the untried future? I have had some strange Christmases since then, but this is the strangest of all, as you would say could you only suddenly look in upon us....